My First Lullaby Album
Full track details at end of review
rec. No details given. DDD NAXOS 8.578213 [71:52]

This is one of a batch of CDs released together, with more to
follow, in a 'My First Album' series. Naxos founder Klaus Heymann
declares this to be "one of our most important projects
with music for children." Each disc consists of around
15 to 25 pieces of music - bleeding chunks, to be sure - that
have been selected as a gentle but inspiring introduction to
the subject matter: in this case the lullaby, but on other volumes
Tchaikovsky, the violin, ballet, classical music and so on.
Virtually all the music consists of single movements drawn from
larger works, with the average timing here just under the four-minute
mark.

The CD booklets are attractively designed with youngsters in
mind, with a fairy-tale style pencil/pastel drawing on the cover
and many smaller colourful ones on every page - stars and moons
feature prominently in this volume. Inside, after a brief introduction
to the subject - "... it is time for the little ones to
go to bed ..." and so on - each item on the disc is allotted
a 'Keyword', ranging from the obvious to the odd, such as 'Dream',
'Shimmering', 'English Strings', 'Tinkling' and 'Tudor Song'.
There follows a descriptive/explanatory paragraph, in straightforward
language that should be intelligible to children as young as
five or six, and unpatronising up to about ten or eleven. The
texts enlarge on some of the things going on in the music, either
as heard in the instruments or in the story itself, generally
with a mention of the mood of the piece and usually alerting
the child to some detail or other.

The blurb states that the booklet "is full of information
on every piece of music", but that is a bit of an exaggeration.
Most obviously, only the composer's surname is given in the
main text, whereas first names - likely to be of interest to
younger children - and dates of birth and death are relegated
to the small print at the back of the booklet. Unfortunately,
there is not even the most cursory of biographical note on any
of the composers - this seems an odd omission when the texts
talk freely about them as if they were old friends to the reader.

The simplified titles also contain some odd extra detail: will
a child know what to make of "Lullaby from Two Pieces,
Op. posth."? Will youngsters be able to read titles in
their original language - only some of which, in any case, have
been supplied? In the explanatory texts, are phrases like "enriching
the impressionistic palette" and "giving full expression
to the distinctive Elgarian and very English lush string sound"
really the right register for young children? Does the note-writer
have young children of his own?

The back of the booklet is the place to go for details of performers,
rightly judged this time to be of little importance to nascent
listeners, but a necessary reference for parents wishing to
delve further into the music, whether on their child's behalf
or perhaps for themselves. Yet the recordings drawn on for this
compilation are not, it must be said, necessarily the best ones
to look out for: Naxos have drawn widely on the back catalogue
bargain basement. For one thing, performances tend to be rarely
more than fair-to-middling - certainly no child could relax
enough to doze off with Steven Rickards singing over them. For
another, some recordings are twenty years old and their age
often shows itself in the thin or tinny quality of the audio,
as in the Fauré Berceuse or, worst of all, the Chanson
de Nuit or the almost mono-sounding Clair de Lune.

On the other hand, it is true that the intended audience is
not hardcore audiophiles but children, who will probably not
notice. Moreover, some recordings, like Jandó's Schumann, have
aged well (although his humming along is as irritating as ever),
and others, like the Bax Lullaby, are from relatively
recent discs. Still, there seems no obvious reason why Naxos
did not use newer, better recordings - it is hard to see how
there could be any copyright issues when all the music comes
from their own releases. Perhaps in part the idea was, quite
understandably, to wring a few more sales out of old stock.

It is commendable of Naxos to include some less predictable
items, including, for the first time in this series, a song
or two. Canteloube's Brezairola or Bax's Lullaby
in particular get a rare but deserved outing. Dowland's lovely
Come, Heavy Sleep is also an eyebrow-raiser, but not
in the same way - his "sleep" is a euphemism for death!

Asking a six-year-old to sit through seventy-five minutes of
any music is a tall order, and the problem with a CD of lullabies
is that all the music is fairly slow and gentle, which may send
young listeners to sleep before intended! Nonetheless, in smaller
doses the programme chosen here - "famous tracks as well
as unexpected gems" - should do the trick, although the
question "Why lullabies?" persists.

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